MIDNIGHT TRAIN GOING ANYWHERE?

The midnight train is always going somewhere.

You and I? Not so much.

Oh, we’re going somewhere, too, but we don’t know where that is.

And we’re not supposed to.

I’ve met people, interesting people, who seem to have done nothing with their lives.

How can that be?

Call it perception.

They look they’ve done nothing only because I didn’t know them well enough and they’re not big horn honkers saying, “Look at me, look over here. Hey, here I am.”

They may have taken their midnight train going anywhere, taken a look around, and came back for all I know.

I met an old guy in Brooklyn who owned the bar, owned the whole building, where I lived.

His dad owned the place before him.

He left town once, taking a cruise to West Africa and back and called it good.

‘Trip of a lifetime’ is what he called it.

That was his midnight train.

 

Going Anywhere?

From Journey:

Just a small town girl
Livin’ in a lonely world
She took the midnight train goin’ anywhere
Just a city boy
Born and raised in south Detroit
He took the midnight train goin’ anywhere

My story was the opposite. She was a city girl, I was a small town boy.

The midnight train for me was a Greyhound bus from Manhattan to Portland.

I could have stayed in New York and never left and lived like everyone else living there.

But I believe there are a lot of people living there who’d leave if they could.

Family and friends and the title of ‘I’m a New Yorker’ keeps them rooted.

If you wait too long, the train leaves the station without you. The bus, too.

Working hard to get my fill
Everybody wants a thrill
Payin’ anything to roll the dice
Just one more time

 

One More Time

I’ve rolled the dice.

The last time came up a winner and I never rolled again.

I set the dice down thirty-eight years ago.

My thought was to get to know one woman, and let her get to know me.

It’s not that complicated.

I left New York and a fun girl I met on the subway who was leaning in.

Turned out she was a government scientist working in the import food testing lab.

I left an angry girl who wanted to be my girlfriend until she met the scientist.

I left an ex-fiance who couldn’t seem to lose my number after we broke up.

I left a girl I worked with. We used to go out for a drink after work.

What really chased me out was an Italian girl who started sitting with me over lunch and talking about the future.

My future was three thousand miles away, which made her sad.

Most of the women I knew before I got married seemed a little sad.

Maybe it was me?

Some will win, some will lose
Some are born to sing the blues
Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on, and on, and on

 

On And On And On

These aren’t the people I met on the midnight train.

I met them after I got off.

Some I’ve seen every few years, others I’ve seen more often.

If I didn’t get on that bus I never would have met this family, never would have had my boys, and I’d never know the difference.

Strangers waiting
Up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching in the night
Streetlights, people
Living just to find emotion
Hiding somewhere in the night

 

I used to buy the Daily News from a stand inside the building where I worked in lower Manhattan.

The owner, a man from India, liked to talk. I liked to listen.

The Man: Do you have a girlfriend?

Me: I know some girls.

Man: But not just one?

Me: A few, yes.

Man: You can never know a woman if there are others.

Me: Does that work the other way, too?

Man: You will discover more about people in general if you have one woman.

Me: I know about people.

Man: Do you?

Me: As much as I want to.

Man: You know the top layer, the first of an infinite number of layers.

Me: Like baklava?

Man: Do you want the thin, brittle, top layer, or the deliciousness in the center.

Me: I want the whole thing.

Man: We all want the whole thing, we don’t all know what that means.

Me: One woman?

Man: Yes.

Me: Not this:

A singer in a smoky room
A smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on, and on, and on

Man: One woman.

 

My lunch partner saw me and walked over.

A wonderful plume of fragrance followed her.

The news guy looked at her with approval.

I got on the midnight train going anywhere a week later.